Contents

Talk:Hercules (constellation)

	This  level-5 vital article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:
Astronomy: Constellations Top‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Astronomy, which collaborates on articles related to Astronomy on Wikipedia.AstronomyWikipedia:WikiProject AstronomyTemplate:WikiProject AstronomyAstronomy articles Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. This article is supported by Constellations task force.

Glory of Hera[edit]

I don't like the translation of Herakles as "glory of Hera". It is accurate, but confusing in this context, because it's not clear that it is the mere literal meaning of the name. I prefer the old explanation "the hero".

However I don't dare to revert without knowing thirds' opinions. – Torsten Bronger 19:19, 28 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I changed it because I was not sure that Hercules meant hero in any sense other than Heracles being a hero. But I could like to change it back, too. — Sverdrup (talk) 20:37, 28 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Don't get me wrong: Although I didn't know so far, Heracles of course means "glory of Hera". But I think that this is very special information. The description of the constellation in this article should use a concise catchphrase for Heracles, and this is "the hero" in my opinion. It is even worth a thought to translate it to English with "Hercules, the hero". (I don't know, but I don't believe that "Cassiopeia" means "queen" for example.)

That's reasonable, and approximately what I though when typing "the hero" first. I'll change it back. — Sverdrup (talk) 22:16, 28 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Was there any discussion of this move? Hercules (constellation) seems much better to me. john k 22:53, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I agree with you. – Torsten Bronger 10:35, 31 Aug 2004 (UTC)

This article has been vandalised by 199.216.204.250.

== Hercules ==

In my science class we had to choose and reserch a constellation so I chose Hercules.

The following two sections read poorly and appear to have originally been combined differently. In particular, the 2nd paragraph of the 1st section (placed in bold) appears to refer to elements in the 2nd section. However, I'm not correcting it because I don't know which visualization is being referred to: RandomCritic 18:30, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hercules (Roman, HeraklesinGreek mythology) was the demigod son of Zeus and Alcmene. One of the most widely known of the Greek heroes, he is best known for his superhuman strength, strong emotions, quickness to act, and often poorly thought out plans. Many stories are told of his life, the most important of which is the story of The Twelve Labours.

However, such visualisation was much later, as some parts require quite faint stars to be included, including those which have Flamsteed numbers but not Bayer designations. Earlier views of the constellation held it to be various things, predominantly a stag. Together with the constellation Sagitta, and the association of this area of the sky (the ZodiacofScorpio) with Artemis, this may be the origin of the myth of the Cerynian Hind, one of The Twelve LaboursofHerakles.

The stars of the constellation Hercules can be connected in an alternative way, which graphically shows the hero in an athletic pose and holding a club.

The hero's head is traced by a quadrangle of stars: π Her, η Her, ζ Her and ε Her known as the "Keystone" asterism. This quadrangle lies between two very bright stars: Vega in the constellation Lyra and α CrB (Gemma, or Alphecca) in the constellation Corona Borealis.

The hero's right leg contains two bright stars of the third magnitude: α Her (Ras Algethi) and δ Her (Sarin). The latter is the right knee.

The hero's left leg contains dimmer stars of the fourth magnitude which do not have Bayer designations but which do have Flamsteed numbers.

The star β Her belongs to the hero's outstretched right hand, and is also called Kornephoros.

The Globular Cluster M13 lies on the top of the hero's head, between the stars η Her and ζ Her. It is dim, but may be detected by the unaided eye on a very clear night. unsigned post manually signed by User:Rursus

Interesting! But don't use it in the articles. There's a long tradition of depicting constellations a certain way from 200 BC to today. The star names are named after those traditional depictions, H.A. Reys childish and pretty unnatural depictions disrupts the recognition of the constellations and confuses more than it adds. Rursus dixit. (^mbork³!) 12:18, 13 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Sidney Hall - Urania's Mirror - Hercules and Corona Borealis.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on July 6, 2016. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2016-07-06. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. — Chris Woodrich (talk) 23:58, 20 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Is a planet in a starsystem that is currently talked about in the news (with the 11 GHz signal SETI). I did some research and found it to be in constellation Hercules... http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/DisplayOverview/nph-DisplayOverview?objname=HD+164595+b&type=CONFIRMED_PLANET Perhaps it needs mentioning? I'm sure people will want to see it mentioned. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.104.35.244 (talk) 15:13, 30 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Hercules (constellation). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060310053508/http://160.114.99.91/astrojan/hercules.htmtohttp://160.114.99.91/astrojan/hercules.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 21:24, 2 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

In the article is written that M13 is the brightest globular cluster in the northern hemisphere. However, Messier 5 is slightly brighter (M13 is mag 5.8 [1], while M5 is mag 5.6 [2]) and located north of the celestial equator. C messier (talk) 17:08, 30 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The story by Dionysius of Halicarnassus isn't supported by the original text. It was added in this edit, and appended with the comment "The story, among others, is described by Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Hyginus" in this edit.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus mentions the myth (Roman Antiquities 1.42, in Loeb), but doesn't connect it with the constellation. De astronomia (attributed to Gaius Julius Hyginus) connects the same myth to the constellation, but I can't find any public domain translations. Both cite Aeschylus' Prometheus Unbound (a lost play).

So what's now presented as a quote from Dionysius of Halicarnassus, looks like it's a retelling of the myth, drawn from various sources, which was connected to Hercules either by Aeschylus or De astronomia. I'll try to rewrite it to explain this. --Yodin^T 12:38, 5 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]